Method of inking printing-films.



PATBNTED JUNE 25, 1907. B.- DAY. METHOD OF INKING PRINTING FILMS.

PPLIOATI ILED APR 2 ATTORNEYS j To all whom it may concern.-

BENJAMIN DAY, OF WEST HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY.

METHOD OF INKING PRINTING-FILMS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 25, 1907.

Application filed April 20, 1906. Serial No. 312,799.

of converting a transparent sheet of any suitable material into a surface-printing and inking medium, and then using this medium to print the inked design carrled by it upon asurface to be subsequently printed from, as in the lithographic or other surface printing arts; or to print an inked design, or inked print, on metals such as zinc, copper, or brass, which. are to be subsequently etched into the form of relief plates.

My transparent surface printing sheet enables the operator to re-ink the printing face of the design which it carries, and to superimpose as many impressions upon a previous print therefrom, as may be necessary to fully strengthen the original print'thus made. In this respect my method differs widely from the us'ual method of transferring prints on prepared paper to stone or metal. In either of the instances last mentioned, the stone'or metal receives only the limited portion of the ink originally carried by the inked paper and transferred therefrom to the stone or metal.

My invention further embraces a transparent surface printing sheet with a suitable and inkable design mapped out as to the larger solid printing surfaces, and drawn in, in the outline details, and charged with suitable ink from a printers roller, to serve as a means for inking the printing surface of a printing film of the kind already known in this art. This is done by so placing the printing-film that it rests face downward on the inked design, and applying pressure at its back. A printing firm, inked in this manner, serves to print the inked design upon any desired surface, not in solids, as originally drawn,but in the texture molded on the printing face of the printing film at the time the film was manufactured. (See patent to Day, No. 214,493, dated April 22d 1879, for a printing film.) As is well understood in this art (see for example my patent above referred to) each printing film has a continuous surface provided with a texture, the latter usu ally consisting of lines or stipples in relief.

For drawings that I wish to print from successively, or for prints that I wish to duplicate by printing from them, I prepare a composite sheet as follows: On a finely surfaced metal plate of the desired dimensions, prepared with talcum or any suitable intervening medium, and properly leveled, I spread, preferably by flowing, a comparatively thick coat of collodion tempered with castor oil, the admixture being known as stripping collodion. hen this is set and dry, I either spread a coat of a gelatin solution tempered with glycerin in the same proportion as the' collodion and allow this to dry, or I flow the surface with a benzolic solution of india rubber, when I again use a coating of collodion to flow over the gelatin or rubber coat, and when this sheet in its entirety is dry I strip it from the finely surfaced metal plate. This done, the sheet has a printing face. For the collodion I use one hundred and fifty parts of gun cotton to one hundred parts of castor oil dissolved in ether and alcohol to a pouring consistency. For the gelatin coating, two. parts by weight of dry gelatin to one part of glycerin dissolved in hot water to a pouring consistency, or rubber dissolved in benzole to a pouring consistency. This gives a three-ply sheet with the gelatin, or the india rubber, imprisoned as a cushion between two collodion sheets, one of Whichthe one flowed over 'the metal plateI use as the drawing and printing surface. I then coat the printing face (the one stripped from the metal plate) with a very thin coating made up as follows: I first make a stock solution composed of shellac,

borax and water; Water 250 centi-cubes and I bring the borax andborax 10 grams. water to the boiling point and then add gradually 50 grams of shellac in scales ,when

cold, I take 150 centi-cubes of this solution and add gradually 4:0 centi-cubes of alcohol. I give the printing face of the sheet a pre liminary'light wash with alcohol to open the pores of the collodion, and then coat the face with a very thin coating of the borax and.

shellac solution and allow it to dry; or, I grain the surface with fine pumice powder and water, in which case the shellac coating is omitted. The sheet is now ready either for a drawing in tusche, or lithographic drawing ink, or for a print from a relief, intaglio, or surface printing plate, or for a combination of drawing and prints any one, or all, of which are placed upon the sheet. Either ICC drawings or prints so placed upon the sheet are then treated by the same method, as follows: Eight grams of gelatin are soaked for an hour or more in cold water. The water is then squeezed out of the gelatin by means of a cheese cloth in which it is placed. The gelatin is then put into an enameled vessel with ten centicubes of acetic acid, and melted with a gentle heat. Two hundred centicubes of warm water are added, and when this is thoroughly mixed with the gelatin, I add gradually, stirring it constantly, one hundred centicubes of alcohol, shaking up the mixture vigorously. I now add, a little at a time, fifty centicubes of a twenty per cent. solution of potassic alum and allow the mixture to stand over night before using it. As the solution jellies at about sixty degrees, it should be used at a temperature of about seventy-five degrees. I now coat the drawing, or print, and the surface with a thin even coating of this preparation, using preferably a fiat camels hair brush lightly charged with the solution, and dry it, either by heat or by evaporation unassisted by heat. WVhen dry and hard, I coat it with ordinary extract of licorice, using a pledget of cotton wool lightly charged with the licorice and rubbing it lightly over the surface until the thinnest of coats is applied. "When this is dry, I wash out the drawing or print with benzine and a pledget of cotton wool which will require little rubbing if the coatings or preparation have been put on thin enough. When every trace of the drawing or print has been removed, not before, the whole surface of the sheet is rolled up with a printers roller, carrying transfer or printing ink in a thin coat, and, then with a pledget of cotton wool, or with a very soft sponge charged with diluted licorice extract, the ink is cleared from the surface, except that which has taken the place of the drawing or print. In other words, the portions of the ink remaining are those which fill the voids left by the removal of the old ink. This operation must be done with care so as not to remove any of the fresh ink from the face of the drawing. When the coat is partially removed, the drawing can be cleared by the roller, and rolling it with a light charge of ink, while the surface is still damp, any smudging of the image can be removed with a sponge char ed with the diluted licorice extract. In all the subsequent operations of rolling up the image with printing ink, I dampen the water taking surface with diluted licorice extract before rolling up, but do not soak it. I squeeze the pledget of cotton wool, or sponge, until nearly dry, so as to just dampen the surface when used. As the water-taking coatings are extremely thin, judgment must be used in the pressure employed in dampening the surface. The drawing or print is now ready to print from on any flat surface, and as the three-ply sheet does not stretch, frequent inkings and printings can be made over the first drawing, or print, to strengthen or fortify it. This may be done by the aid of any registering device in common use by either lithographers or surface printers. Instead of my three ply sheet, I can prepare a thin sheet of transparent celluloid, grain it, and print it in a similar way, or I can prepare any thin sheet of transparent material that is water repelling, but I prefer to use my three ply sheet and transfer the drawing or print to it, as described, on account of the flexibility of the three ply sheet and the cushioning of its p inting surface by the imprisoned gelatin or rubber.

Reference is to be had to the accompanyin g drawings forming a part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 represents an inked drawing or of the inking surface of the design; Fig. 2 represents a printing film after being inked by the member shown in Fig. 1, the flat tint representing the uninked portion of the printing film Fig. 3 represents a print from the printing film inked by Fig. 1 and Fig. 4 represents the result of a series of impressions one on the other, from the inked printing film represented in Fig. 2, which has been resupplied with ink at every print by the imprimograph shown in Fig. 1, the printing film at every impression having been swerved slightly out of register as described; Fig. 5 is an enlarged cross section through one of my flexible, transparent sheets made up of separate laminae as elsewhere described, all bearing an inked design ready to yield up its ink, and also bearing an ink repelling solution coated with licorice extract surrounding the same.

The printing film shown in Fig. 2 is provided with a number of equidistant parallel lines, which, in practice, are raised; that is, to a person looking at the printing face of the film, they appear in relief. These lines, considered collectively, form a tint. There are many hundred different tints already in use upon printing films, however, and I do not limit myself to any particular tint to be employed. It will be noted that when the printing film shown in Fig. 2, is placed face downward upon the inked design, prepared as above described and shown in Fig. 1, and pressure is applied to the back of the printing film, the inked surface of Fig. 1 is taken up and appears in reverse order upon the print ing face of the printing film. The design of Fig. 1, thus imparted to the printing film is now ready to be printed as shown in Fig. 2, and after the adjustment of the printing film in its registry apparatus, by pressure upon the back of the printing film, it yields the image shown in Fig. 3. If now, the

. impression now taken,) the result shown in Fig. 4 is produced; that is to say, the number of tint lines will be exactly the same in both cases, but in Fig. 4 they are apparently broader and heavier, owing to the fact that each line shown in said figure is made by superimposing upon itself a corresponding line shown in Fig. 3, the superimposition,

Y however, being a little out of exact registry.

The flexible transparent sheet may perhaps be better understood both as to construction and action from an inspection of Fig. 5. The first coat of collodion, that is,

the first coat which in the preparation of the transparent sheet is flowed upon the metal plate, is shown at 6. The second coat, which is of flexible gelatin, is shown at 7. The last coat applied, which is of flexible collodion, is shown at 8 the second coating, 7, serves as a cushion between the coats 6, and 8, the three coats together, forming the complete flexible sheet, of which the exposed surface of the coat 6 may be considered as the operating surface of the prepared sheet; that is to say, the exposed surface of the coat 6 is used to draw and print from, or to be inked so as to render operative its ink-taking and ink-yielding design, for the purpose of printing this design upon other surfaces. At 9 may be seen the coating of borax, shellac, water and alcohol upon which the design 11 is made in lithographic drawing ink. At 10 are shown spaces surrounding the design; these spaces represent a surface coated with the gelatin, alum and alcohol solution, and then treated with the licorice extract. It will be understood that the design 11 represents spaces, or surfaces, which remain after the lithographic drawing ink has been washed out with a solvent, the spaces or voids remaining, being now filled with print ing or transfer ink.

I will now describe how I use the inked surface of a design, drawing, or print, on my printing "surface to ink the printing surface of a printing film, and then print the inked film on the surface destined to receive the impression, in the texture peculiar to that particular printing film.

Say it is a job of color work that I am doing on lithographic stones, and that I am drawing the blue stone of the series of colors, and want my shadings in a fine stipple. In order to get the design on my three-ply sheet, I proceed as follows: I employ the gelatin tracing as ordinarily used in lithography. After it has been used to map out the planes, or places of color, and has been transferred to the stones as a guide, I place it over a sheet of white paper. I next affix the tracing and the paper to my drawing table with the prepared side facing the paper, so disposed as to correspond, as to right and left, with its transferred outline on the stone. Over this I fasten, printing face up, my threeply sheet, usually by tacking it down. As this sheet is transparent, I can see my out line color map plainly, and with this and the colored original before me I draw and paint on the three-ply sheet, in lithographic drawing ink, all the planes or places I wish to cover with the stippled printing film on the stone, in solid masses. These masses will vary in area from broad stretches to minute parts that can be put in with a pen. I then prepare the drawing as above described, and ink it so as to render it ready to yield up its ink to the printing film. I now adjust my printing film and its frame over the inked image thus virtually formed. To secure accuracy in thus adjusting the printing film. and its frame, I use one of my holdfasts described in Patent No. 783,823, dated February 28, 1905, or any similar registering device with its micrometrical adjusters and frame clamping devices. In this connection see also Patents Nos. 813,867, dated February 27, 1906, and 802,738, dated October 24, 1905. The parts must be so arranged that the printing face of the printing film just impinges on the inked image I have drawn and rolled up. I now, before applying the printing film to the surface, give thesurface and image a gentle wash with clean water, well squeezed out of the sponge to remove any trace of the licorice water on the inked surface, and when the water dries off the face of the work, I press the printing film by pressure on its back with a rubber pressing roller against the inked surfaces of the drawing until it is charged with ink. I re peat these operations until the printing film is properly inked. Two inkings generally suflice. I now take a second holdfastwith its micrometric attachments, or similar registering apparatus, and adjust the printing film over the stone, until its inked surfaces can fall within the boundaries laid out in the transfer. These boundaries I can readily find, as I have my printing surface as one guide and the transferred outlines on the stone as another. By repeated inkings of the printing film, and prints on the stone made by pressure on its back in the manner set forth, and by a slight swerving of the printing film by means of the micrometrical devices, I can model the printed surfaces, darkening such portions as may need it. I proceed in the same way with the other colors using other textured printing films, or two or more textures in the same colors, until the novel efiects, unattainable, as far as I know, by any other process except by two prints. One of these novel effects is the production of a complicated design embodied in a plain tint, or texture, as shown in Fig. 2. This is done as follows: The design is made as above on my transparent printing surface. A line film, (we will say one with lines molded in relief on its face), is inked with the design carried by the transparent printing surface (see Fig. 2), which is then printed from the lineprinting film on the surface. By repeated inkings and printings and micrometrical adjustments swerving the printing film, the first printed lines are thickened to twice or three times their actual value in printing face. This gives the design originally car ried by the transparent printing surface, on the surface to which it is applied in thickened lines. I then ink the whole surface of the line-printing film with a roller and print the whole tint over the previous tinted design in the thick lines and the result is the design within the tint in a continuous line (see Fig. 2), which can then be printed from.

Drawings made on transparent printing surfaces, as above described, and shaded with a printing film in the manner above pointed out, can be prepared, rolled up, and dusted with an opaque powder such as plumbago, lamp black, or rouge, washed with water, and dried. They can be used as diapositives to produce negatives by contact, or can be illuminated by transmitted light and copied in reduced proportions in a camera.

In accordance with one feature of my invention, prints can be made from types, or relief plates, on the transparent three-fly printing surface, and reversed by first preparing and inking up the impressions and rinting these impressions on another surface, which in turn is prepared and inked up.

I do not limit myself to the use of my prepared transparent medium for inking a rinting film, as a printing film can be inke from a prepared and inked design on stone, zinc, or aluminium, and similar results obtained. In general, however, I prefer to use for my transparent surface printing sheet, a similar flexible transparent sheet or a sheet of fiexible transparent celluloid, for it serves my purpose better than an inked surface on an opaque body.

In the lithographic art it is often necessary to transfer portions of an engraved surface on stone or metal in transfer ink to another stone to make up designs by combinations of borders, tints, and textures, or to transfer areas of tints and textures to fill in given surfaces. By my transparent surface printing sheet, these tints, textures, and borders can be printed on the stone by inking and reinking the printed textures of my surface printing transparent sheet, and this sheet can be mounted on a frame and adjusted over any surface on which it is desired to print the whole, or portions, of the prepared printed textures, borders, etc., in the same way that the relief surface of a printing film and its frame is adjusted to various surfaces. Another advantage in the above described trans parent, flexible sheets, is that they can be stored with their prepared drawings, or prints, for future use, in portfolios the same as drawings; that they can be cleaned off, and the printing surfaces used for a new design by washing off the drawing with benzene and removing the preparations by weak, caustic soda and alcohol, and with water.

When I desire to make a negative, from a drawing or design (positive) already in existence, and made in accordance with my process above described, I treat the drawing or design as above described, up to the stage where the'coating of licorice extract is applied to it. Now, by breathing lightly on this coated surface when dry, the latter because of its slightly hygrometric properties, is rendered sticky. I now rub over this sticky surface a coating of loose, powdered plumbago of the finest quality. In doing this I employ a pledget of cotton. This covers the drawing or design and its hygrometric surface; or in other words, the entire exposed surface. As the drawing or design was originally made in a fatty ink, soluble in benzol, benzene, or turpentine, and as the licorice extract is insoluble in the same men struum, it follows that the design is readily washed out with benzol, benzene or turpentine, and the ground remains, thus forming a very dense negative. This negative is like any other negative, and serves to print by aid of light.

I am aware that prior to my invention, printed sheets called transfers have been in use to transfer a print to various surfaces to be subsequently prepared and printed from; that off-sets, or fresh prints, have been made on ink-yielding surfaces, and prints therefrom made on paper or other surfaces, in conjunction with prints on the opposite side of the paper or surface, to give the impression of a prlnt permeating the paper; that photolithographic prints are coated with printing ink and developed in water and the print transferred to a printing surface.

Having thus described my invention I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 2 1. The method herein described, of printing designs, which consists in providing a printing film having a textured relief printing face, bringing said printing face into contact with the freshly inked printing face of a designcarrying surface, thereby inking portions only of the textured relief printing face of the printing film, next applying said printing film, thus prepared, to a surface to be operated upon, then by pressure on the back of said printing film reproducing in texture upon said surface the area so inked.

2. The method herein described, of preparing shaded prints, which consists in imparting to a surface an ink-yielding design, pressing upon said surface a textured relief printing film, so as to ink in a texture corresponding to that of said printing film certain portions of said film, corresponding to said design, and then pressing said printing film upon a different surface to be operated upon.

3. The method herein described of producing shaded prints, which consists in providing a surface with a design, inking the design on said surface, pressing upon said surface a transparent printing film provided with a relief texture so as to cause ink to adhere, in the form of a texture, to certain parts of said printing fihnwhile other parts thereof are free from ink, removing said printing film, and finally pressing said film upon another surface.

4. The method herein described of preparing shaded prints, whichconsists in pro- Viding a surface with a design, inking said surface, pressing upon said surface a printing film so as to ink certain portions of said film, the portions to be inked having a textured relief, removing said printing film, pressing said printing film upon a surface to be shaded, replacing said printing film upon the surface carrying the design, registering said film relatively to said design, providing said film with additional ink from said design, again removing said film, again registering it upon the surface to be shaded but swerved slightly aside from its first position thereon, and pressing it upon said surface so as to broaden and deepen the color of the texture first produced thereon.

5. The method herein described of reproducing designs, which consists in providing a surface with a design, said surface having portions capable of receiving ink and other portions capable of repelling ink, next inking the entire design thus produced, pressing upon said inked design a printing film so as to take ink from the inked parts only, of said design, and finally pressing said film upon a surface to be operated upon.

6. The method herein described of forming impressions, which consists in producing a design, inking the same, applying to said design a printing film having a textured relief surface so as to ink said printing film with said inked design, removing said printing film, causing the same to register upon a surface, and finally pressing said printing film against said surface so as to ink said surface with said inked design.

7. The method herein described, of forming impressions, which consists in inking a design, applying thereto a transparent film having a textured relief surface and capable of receiving ink from said design, placing said film adjacent to a surface to be operated upon, looking at said surface through said transparent film, and moving the latter so as to bring the ink thereupon into registry with predetermined portions only, of said surface, and finally applying said film to said surface so as to ink only said predetermined portions of the latter.

8. The method herein described, of forming impressions, which consists in producing a design, inking the same, applying to said design a transparent printing film having a textured relief surface so as to inksaid textured relief by aid of said inked design, removing said printing film, placing said printing film adjacent to a surface bearing a design, looking through said printing film at said surface, and moving said printing film so as to bring said design into a predetermined position relatively to the design upon said surface, and finally bringing said printing film into contact with said surface so as to ink the latter.

9. The method herein described, of reproducing in shaded texture a design, which consists in charging with ink certain predetermined portions only on an exposed face bearing said design, pressing upon said face, a printing film provided with a textured relief, so as to receive upon said printing film a charge of ink covering only predetermined portions of said film corresponding to the inkcovered areas of said face, the charge of ink upon said film appearing in the texture characteristic of said film, next placing said film face to face upon a surface to be operated upon, and pressing said film upon said lastmentioned surface.

10. The method herein described, of copying solid areas so as to make the same appear in texture, wh ch consists in charging With ink a surface having predetermined areas in solids, applying to said surface thus inked a printing film having a textured relief surface, and then pressing said printing film upon a surface capable of receiving an ink impression therefrom.

11. The method herein described, of printing a design having a textured relief printing face, which consists in bringing said printing face into contact, by pressure, with the freshly inked printing face of a printable design or map of the surfaces or areas required in the texture of the printing film in order to shade a surface, the design or map of the required areas being charged With ink, next placing the printing film with its charge of ink thus yielded up by the inked design, printing face downward upon the surface to be printed upon, then, by pressure on the back of said printing film, printing the areas embraced in the inked portions of the texture in relief of the printing film.

12. The method herein described of converting the solid areas of an inked design 01 map into textured areas, which consists in charging said design or map with ink and pressing into engagement therewith a printing film provided with a textured surface so as to ink the latter, and pressing said printing film into engagement with a surface to be operated upon, thus conferring a texture thereupon.

13. The method herein described of producing shaded prints with predetermined areas in the texture of the molded relief surfaces of a printing film, by inking said film with printable ink yielding areas of a design or map, rolled up with suitable ink, on which the textured side of printing film is pressed to charge it with ink, removing the film so inked, recharging the design or map with a fresh rolling of ink, replacing the film, registering it so that it falls directly over the inked map or design, pressing it against the freshly inked design or map, so that it receives an additional charge of ink, and repeating this operation until the film is sufficiently inked to print directly the design or map with its textured areas on the surface to be printed on.

14. The method herein described, of converting the solid areas of a design or map into various inked textured areas, which consists in providing a surface with a design or map, said surface having portions capable of receiving printing ink and other portions capabio of repelling printing ink, next inking the design or map thus produced, pressing upon said inked design or map a textured printing film until it takes up the requisite ink from 3 the inked parts of the design or map, and finally pressing said film upon a surface to be operated upon.

15. The method herein described, of deepening the color of the textured areas of a de- 4 sign, which consists in providing a printing film having a textured area, inking said print ing film, impressing said printing film upon said design so as to leave thereupon a part of its ink, then reinking said printing film, bringing the same into registry with said design as before, and pressing said printing film into engagement with said design so as to increase the amount of ink placed thereupon.

In testimony whereof I have signed my 5 name to this specification in the resence of two subscribing witnesses.

BENJAMIN DAY. Witnesses WALTON HARRISON,

EVERARD B. MARsHALL. 

